Myanmar’s underground civilian rulers are struggling for recognition

FOR AROUND an hour on the afternoon of June 4th, as on so many previous occasions this year, the internet was out across Myanmar. For opponents of the country’s ruling military junta, the reason was clear: the generals were trying to stop people from watching a press conference by the National Unity Government (NUG), an underground alliance of civilian politicians who claim to be the legitimate representatives of the Burmese people.

The generals are right to worry about the appeal of an alternative set of rulers. Myanmar has been riven by unrest ever since the Tatmadaw, as the army is known, retook power from the civilian government in a coup on February 1st. Bloody repression failed to deter all protesters; many have taken up arms. But the NUG remains far from its aim to topple the junta and gain international recognition as the rightful government.

The underground body was formed in April by lawmakers mostly from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the ruling party ousted by the generals; Ms Suu Kyi is back in detention. It is more inclusive than her administration, which was composed largely of elderly bureaucrats from the Bamar ethnic majority and which defended the army’s persecution of the Muslim Rohingyas. The NUG, though led by NLD members, is ethnically and politically diverse. It promises...